In Memoriam Alexander Litvinenko

It started as a possible case of food poisoning but within weeks turned into a grim spectacle of enormous political proportions: Aleksander Litvinenko, former member of the Russian secret service, died in his place of residence London last November, after having been poisoned with a radioactive substance. The search for the possible perpetrators lead to a political difficult situation that reminded us of the dark days of the Cold War.

Three years ago Aleksander Litvinenko told his life story to documentary maker Jos De Putter. It is a wild tale full of conspiracies, assassination attempts and imputations. Litvinenko talks about his time with the secret service, about his experience in Chechnya, and in particular about the series of bomb attacks on Russian territory that led to the seizure of power by Vladimir Putin. According to Litvinenko those attacks were the work of the secret service.

After Litvinenko's funeral in December 2006, Backlight spoke to Litvinenko’s widow. Marina Litvinenko is writing a book about her husband. The book will be published in May 2007 and the film rights have already been sold to Columbia Pictures. In this unique interview, she speaks about how they first met, how they fled to England and she speaks about Alexander's death agony.

17 Comments / User Reviews

Stoke City

what a brave guy. very sad the way his life ended.

skip

Very sad story...kinda makes u think about the polish president and his cabinet and the plane crash that killed everyone on board...knowing putin i wouldnt be surprised if he was involved....remember they said he signed a bill that gives him the right to kill all his enemies? well obama wanted to build missle interceptors in poland to protect the usa from any missles launched from russia...i quess poland paid its price..... rip litvinenko... rip kaczynski

eve

Skip- very interesting about the polish president and the plane crash..agreed..coincidence seems unlikely.
Excellent documentary, well done, and what an unbelievably brave individual, rip Sasha

Dean

very sad, makes you wonder about what really goes on behind the propaganda shield.

Jennifer

A false flag operation, explosions planned by a government that wanted an excuse to go to war, calling the Chechens terrorists and getting public backing for a bloody war. Now that theme is starting to sound very familiar indeed and smacks of 9/11.

kongo

As the poster above has noted, a prime example of how a government produces incidents to go to war. What is frightening is the propaganda and power of puppet master Putin, it only seems to increase. Despite these obvious assasinations on his behalf, the russian public must be very cut-off from free media.

R.I.P.

Buddha

And there's a rumor these guys have WMD.

rusty

this made me want to cry, to think about how he must have suffered so deeply. and all because he spoke out about what he was observing, and someone in power didn't agree and wanted to stifle him out of cowardice. i'm amazed at how strong he was through it all.. i wish i were that strong of a person.

r.i.p., sasha. you're in a much better realm than this one ever was to you.

Jack Seahorse

honorable..

Guest

Don't know if anyone is still interested in this story, It fascinated me at the time and still does.
His wife won her fight yesterday for an open investigation into whether or not her husband was killed by Russian agents. This could prove to be a little delicate, I can't imagine Russia playing ball.

looks like their answer to this is that his 'suicide' is not their problem. Its a brave man that locks horns with the KGB. Maybe there is a twisted logic to the suicide claim, he was asking for trouble when he opened his mouth.

>>remember they said he signed a bill that gives him the right to kill all his enemies?

the americans actually did.

whoooly

Funny [actually NOT] how Obama & company have followed Putin's lead...now we have gangsters running both sides of the game! Did anyone else notice the parallel use of September "terrorist acts against the people to convince the use of military actions"? These sick Satanists and egocentric psychopaths that run the world who are too cowardly to show themselves use these gangster organizations to do their dirty deeds...their days are numbered! Wake up people and take back our honor...lets remove this scum off the face of the planet once and for all!!!

awful_truth

You watch a story like this, and you have to wonder how much truth there is in anything. The only thing for certain is that everyone has an agenda, and opportunism strikes from all sides. For me, the bottom line is this:
A**holes come in many shapes and forms, and it doesn't matter if it is Russian, American, British, French, German, Chinese, Muslim, Christian, etc, etc, because the power players for all of these cultures, and ideologies are guilty of being evil. (exploitation of inequity) Oh, they can try to justify it, (we need what you have, he was a traitor, we are defending our interests abroad) but in the final analysis, there is only 1 race, the human race, and we all bleed red! The idea that anyone can subjugate many others because of knowledge, strength, wealth, or even beauty, is unacceptable. (only defense, and survival are understandable; maybe not right, but they are understandable, uncontrolled power, and greed are not)
P.S: There need be only one commandment. Do not do to others, that which you would not have done to you! Take care, and best wishes everyone.